GA-FDD issues warning over “fake” drug on local market

Pictorial representation of the Original and counterfeited/fake product

The Government Analyst –Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) has issued a public warning and recall about the circulation of a “fake/Counterfeit Brand of Daflon (micronized purified flavonoid fraction) on our local market.”

According to the GA-FDD, the original product is sold in a white box with blue borders and contains sixty (60) 500mg tablets that are further divided on four (4) silver blister packs, each containing fifteen (15) tablets, while the fake product is sold in a white box with no border and containing sixty (60) 500mg tablets that are further divided on six (6) silver with blue blister packs, each containing ten (10) tablets.

Moreover, it was outlined that the manufacturers’ address of the original product is in France while the address for the counterfeit product is Turkey / Ukraine.

The official distributors of the Original Product are Massy Distributors Inc. and Ansa McAl Trading Ltd.

Inspectors of the GA-FDD have to date since seized approximately twenty four (24) boxes x 60 tablets x 500mg of the fake from several wholesaler bonds and retail pharmacies in Georgetown and in Region 3.

GA-FDD said that criminal proceedings “would be instituted against the importers of the fake/ counterfeited Daflon.”

Director of the Department Marlon Cole said that the drug which has been classified as fake is “unable to achieved therapeutic effect for intended use because flavonoid are poorly micronized resulting in particle size greater than 2 µ micro meters resulting in poor stomach absorption.”

He implored consumers to ‘return the counterfeited product to wholesalers and retailers and be refunded, while urging them to report to the GA-FDD on telephone number 222-8859, any proprietor who refuses to cooperate with this mandatory recall exercise.’

Moreover, the Department is calling on importers and distributors to “with immediate effect surrender all the Fake/ Counterfeited Daflon associated with this mandatory recall to be destroyed, failure to do same will leave the department with no alternative but to initiate legal proceedings against defaulters.”